Stoke City 3 Arsenal 1

25/01/2010

Stoke City pulled off a famous 3-1 win over Premier League high-fliers Arsenal in their fourth round FA Cup tie at the Britannia Stadium this afternoon. Ricardo Fuller was the hero on the day for The Potters grabbing a brace.All the talk before the match had centred on Sol Campbell's return in an Arsenal shirt. However, the former England defender looked on in horror as the Gunners fell behind as early as the third minute when Fuller punished some slack defending to get on the end of a Rory Delap throw-in.

Arsene Wenger had decided to rest nine of the players who had started in the dramatic 4-2 victory over Bolton on Wednesday and despite the patchwork nature of the Arsenal team they found themselves back on level terms just before the break. Dean Whitehead was adjudged to have handled the ball on the edge of the box and Denilson's shot from the resulting free-kick deflected past Sorensen in the Stoke goal.

However, Arsenal were unable to build on their undeserved equalizer and Stoke dominated proceedings in the second half. Fuller scored his second on 78 minutes heading home a Mamady Sidibe cross before Whitehead added a third four minutes from the end of normal time.